Corals going pale, advice needed

[Cam]

Hi,

Over the past 5 months or so I have been having problems with corals going pale and eventually dying, mainly SPS but a euphyllia was also lost. I keep up with water changes of about 15% a week. All params (see below) seem ok with the exception of iodine and strontium which are a little low and dkh which is high but otherwise everything is fine. I have recently got rid of a bad dino bloom which lasted almost 8 months but I am still getting almost no growth and some corals paling. Syetem is about 9 months old and has live rock which was almost mew and about 1 - 1 1/2 inches of aragonite sand. Only 8 fish in the system, 2 anthias, 1 leopard wrasse, 2 small sand sifting gobies, 1 royal gramma, 1 small coral beauty and 1 small purple tang

I run carbon and phosphate remover regularly although not 24/7. Tank is apparently in a good condition generally as there is good coraline on the rocks and with the exception of a small patch or two or bryopsis there is no nuisance algae. I clean the glass about every 3-4 days.

I have been dosing with vodka over the past few weeks to help lower a slightly elevated nitrate level and am dosing with Zeo amino acids and phol's coral vitaliser to try and give the corals anything they may be lacking but this seems to have had no noticeable effect and certain corals are still slowly becoming paler, clams are doing find however and putting on good growth.

I have kept SPS/LPS corals for quite a few years so have some experience with them but this seems to be something very odd and I am at a loss to explain what is causing it. All obvious checks for things like rust contamination have been done. It seems odd that this has been happening for at least 5-6 months despite water changes etc. Has anyone got any thoughts as to what may be causing this problem? I am reluctant to invest in more stock until I can get to the bottom of what is causing the issue.

Cheers,

Cam.

Tank details etc below:

Total volume aprox 450ltrs
Lighting 400w BLV 14k MH on Icecap electronic ballast aprox 12 inches above the water which is about 2 foot 4 inches deep to the sand
Calcium reactor running crushed coral
Deltec 702 skimmer rated at 2000ltrs (444 UK gallons)
Circulation aprox 40x per hour

Params (professionally tested)
ph 8.0
Salinity 33.5
po4 0.03
nitrate 1.0
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
ca 430
dkh 15.0
mg 1380
iodine 0
strontium 0.4
potassium 380
temp 27.5 +/- 0.5

[polysynth]

Do you feed your corals? I get good results from feeding Rod's Food Coral Blend. I also heard good things about Reef Nutrition's Oyster Feast if you want to give that a try.

[Insainoreefer]

how long is your light cycle? sounds like too strong of light.

[mpoletti]

My opinion is that you have a very light bioload with only 8 small fish in a 440 liter (100 gallon) tank and you are running a skimmer that is rated for a 2000 liter (500 gallon) tank. Add on top of that you are dosing carbon; IMO you are starving your system. Nutrients are ok, they are food for the corals.

[spleify]

I would definitely recommend feed more and the addition of AAHC(amino acids, high concentration), I have had good results with Zeovit AAHC.

Good luck

HTH

[Cam]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15162944#post15162944 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by polysynth
Do you feed your corals? I get good results from feeding Rod's Food Coral Blend. I also heard good things about Reef Nutrition's Oyster Feast if you want to give that a try.

I feed several times a week with my own home made coral food based on the 'blue coral method' recipe.

QUOTE]how long is your light cycle? sounds like too strong of light.[/QUOTE]

Currently the main light is on about 8 hours a day. I have been building this up over the fast month from 5 hours. It was this way to help sort out the dinos

My opinion is that you have a very light bioload with only 8 small fish in a 440 liter (100 gallon) tank and you are running a skimmer that is rated for a 2000 liter (500 gallon) tank. Add on top of that you are dosing carbon; IMO you are starving your system. Nutrients are ok, they are food for the corals.

I was thinking along those lines, the skimmer is pretty powerful and the skimmate produced these days is very light in colour. I was thinking about leaving it off for 12 hours a day.

I would definitely recommend feed more and the addition of AAHC(amino acids, high concentration), I have had good results with Zeovit AAHC.

I am using the basic aminos so perhaps an increase in dose may be a good idea pending getting hold of the AAHC.

I have been thinking along the same lines as most of you but it is good to seek other opinions in case I've missed something.

Thanks,

Cam.

[Toddrtrex]

The two things (( parameter wise )) that stick out for me, is that your salinity is a bit low, I keep my around 35 PPT. And your Alk is pretty high, I keep mine around 3 meq/l -- which is around 9-10 dkh. I know that if I let mine get too high my SPS (( montis first )) will get paler.

[Cam]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15163786#post15163786 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Toddrtrex
The two things (( parameter wise )) that stick out for me, is that your salinity is a bit low, I keep my around 35 PPT. And your Alk is pretty high, I keep mine around 3 meq/l -- which is around 9-10 dkh. I know that if I let mine get too high my SPS (( montis first )) will get paler.

Hi,

I seem to have real trouble keeping my dkh at a reasonable level. I run a reactor with coral branch media and the mg is pretty good but the dkh always seems to be a bit out of sync with what should be happening. Perhaps I need to turn off the reactor for a while again and keep ca high with another additive until the dkh drops a bit.

Cam.

[Skeptic_07]

Could it be temperature? 27.5 Celsius is (about 81.5 Farenheight) a bit on the high side, not extremely high though.

[dwilly]

I had the same issues for about a yr. Also, I use RC salt, so alk on the high side. I was doing weekly 10% water changes, too. Over the last 2 months I have made 2 changes that appear to be helping. First, as mentioned above, I am feeding a lot more. I feed Rod's in the morning (plus nori 3 days/wk.) and then in the eve when the main lights go off I feed different stuff, cyclopeez, rotifers, phyto. I am probably feeding double on the Rod's than I used to feed. Also, I have reduced my water changes, I'm only doing them every 10 - 14 days, and every other change I'm doing 15% vs. 10%. I'm keeping a close eye on the tank looking for any signs of algae, but so far, nothing. My colors are really starting to get better, but it is a slow process.

[Tyrenlds]

Your temp is perfect. 81.5 is well below the annual average water temperature at Figi.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15164242#post15164242 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Skeptic_07
Could it be temperature? 27.5 Celsius is (about 81.5 Farenheight) a bit on the high side, not extremely high though.

[Baros]

Cam,
Your Iodine level is very low, it needs to be between 0.03-0.06ppm.

[Cam]

Yes, I've just picked up some iodine. I've been using lugols but it doesn't seem to have had much effect as it was 0 a few weeks ago when I last had the professional test done. I don't know much about iodine except to say that its pretty hard to test for, hence I have a professional test done.

Cam.

[SPStoney]

corals seem to be starving. I would get more fish in your system. more fish poo= food for corals. I have been in this hobby for 8 years, I used to have a 100g full blown sps for 5 years and now downsized to a 25 with sps lps and not once have I ever worried about my Iodine level.

[Cam]

I know of several reef keepers here who have had major problems with SPS die back and total losses that have had major improvements following iodine dosing. As you I have never really dosed with iodine but as I am able to get an acurate reading I am going to add a small amount, although I don't think that it has anything to do with my problem, I just like to keep levels as good as possible.

Currently the skimmer is off for a while and I'm adding more of my coral food and some aminos plus a bit of the Phol's.

Cheers,

Cam.